JA: It was helpful being a fan of the book first and foremost when auditioning and having a sense
of the tone and the character a little bit SL: I read when I found out about the
audition because it was kind of like reading a script (JK: Really good).
That was my way of just determining if I liked it or not
JK: I was not quite as professional. I read it after I got the job because [ __ ] you
better read it and it was helpful to just to understand the story we were making, you know,
the story we were trying to tell. The message, the sort of whys of like
why why is this a story that i want to be part of? SL: That Bobbi basically was written as a bitch,
um and just so kind of like... I don't want to say the word, but just like the basic kind of,
just the basic you know description of yeah like the bitchy, bold, rude, blunt girl...
JK: ...and how can you go and mess that up and make it make it better. Because the thing that
uh I think Sasha and I have in common as actors, or just professionals that people you know may
or may not want to hire, is that we can get typecast, right? As the tough girl with the soft,
you know the tough exterior soft interior you know whatever. And sometimes you get a script that
has that log line that we often get but there's an opportunity to turn it on its head.
And when you can't, when I can't find a way to, when I can't find any room in the role
then I won't take it. But this, you know, this script had a lot of room to make decisions.
JA: I feel like they did a great job at bringing things over to the script and
Lenny was very sure to kind of keep mining the book for what more we could get from it and keep
returning to it as a kind of obvious source of material, so it was really helpful for me.
AO: Yeah I was the same I felt like I always kind of almost saw it as like
Frances's diary or something. So it was her kind of perspective on everything that was
happening and so I drew from it so much. But also it was so great to kind of see how it
was being adapted as well and things that, you know, they took from it or had to be changed or
things like that, to I guess work in a visual form. Yeah, I think I drew from the book a lot
and it really helped but you know it's written so kind of specifically and intricately.
SL: I guess like for my character and a lot of our characters besides Frances,
you kind of are literally going off of someone else's perspective and how they view you,
so there's not much detail in the room when it comes to anything about us besides her opinion.
JK: Like Sasha says there was a lot of uh empty space for me, especially for Melissa
because she's the only character that, well she's the character that gets the least, that spends
least time with Frances and every scene has to involve Frances, right? She has to be in the scene
because otherwise the story doesn't exist. So for me, there was a lot of filling in the blanks.
JA: For a number of reasons. I think her characters, I think we can see shades of
ourselves in all her characters. They're all very complex and grounded and flawed. I think she's
quite modern in what she's writing about, particularly with this book. It feels like
a kind of modern love story and the themes that it's touching upon: whether you can love more
than one person and how we find love outside of kind of conventional constructs is quite
a modernish concept. And I think lots of people latch on to that. And I think she's just like very
observant and often funny and moving and just like a brilliant writer I guess.
AO: Yeah I think there's, I guess she's talking about such universal things that we all go through
and like coming of age and love and heartbreak and, you know, your place in the world and all
that. But I guess the language she uses is so kind of, yeah it's so kind of raw and honest and
she just has this kind of ability I think to get inside your head and you just feel a bit,
you know, seen when you're reading your book. So yeah, I think it's that people just love,
I think people just love to feel understood and stuff, so I think that's a big thing.
AO: I think that stuff is so interesting to play and exciting to play and I think you know Lenny's
so wonderful at really giving that space and kind of, really kind of investigating all of the
looks and the pauses and the silences between the characters because they say so much and so I think
you know having the book and then also having those kind of mapped out in the script I think
it's just such a joy to get to explore that stuff and kind of the power of those little moments and
how much of a story that they can tell. JA: I guess so, I feel like for the
two characters one of the ways they are actually able to communicate is physically
because they're so rubbish at talking and saying what they're feeling. So that is a big part of the
way that they communicate. And like any other kind of unsaid beat, Lenny wanted to kind of explore
the meaning behind those moments and hopefully every one feels slightly different
and they're kind of like extensions of conversations in a way that was the idea.
I mean loads but, maybe one that jumps out is A Little Life. Did you read that, that comedy!
That's a great book. Well like I'd love to do like a John le Carré or something like that you know? I
think that'd be pretty fun, a bit of a spy novel. AO: See I actually know this is being adapted and
I know that, I think Lenny's doing it, so this isn't me telling Lenny to be in it,
but I just can so imagine, like it was one of those books when I read I was like this
has to be made into something. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. I just think
is the most like character, like it's just the characters are just dynamite and you've read it
JA: I would like to be in that too AO: Yes, if Lenny could just put us in that.
There's a character called Mary Margaret Muffet. JA: Say it to camera.
AO: Mary Margaret Muffet would be great please. There's brilliant characters in it and it's so,
it's a book that's kind of looking at so much but yeah that's one I'd love to to see.
I think we both binged This Is Going To Hurt which I thought was incredible. I'd
actually read the book like two years ago, or maybe a year and a half ago and
it was so interesting to watch the show and that it almost had the same
pace or like momentum as how I read it because it's so stressful like,
but it's so funny as well. And like Ben Wishaw's incredible and so that was one that I watched
really, really quickly I think and and loved. JA: Same.
W: So if we get part for Ben Wishaw in The Heart's Invisible Furies as well then...
AO: Oh my god he would be so good in that. W: Let's make that happen